Razor stropping apparatus



Feb. 16, 1932. H: BUNTEMEYER RAZOR STROPPI NG APPARATUS Filed Dec. 10, 1929 Ihwentor the strop during substantially Patented Feb. 16, 1932 STATES RAZOR STROPLPING' ALELPARATUS Application filed December 10, 1929. Serial The inventionis directed-to a stropping device designed particularly for safety razor blades,in which the blade is reciprocated over a strop and held in proper relation to the movement, the respective movements of the blade over the strop automatically presenting diiferent surfaces of the blade for engagement with the strop.

The primary object is the provision of a carrier in which a blade holder carrying the blade may be loosely placed, the carrier being arranged to hold the blade and carrier in fixed relation to the carrier following the positioning of the holder by engagement of the blade with the stropin the respective reciprocating movements of the blade over the strop, the blade holder being particularly constructed with a view to insuring that the holder and blade will resume a normal relation to the holder following disconnection of the blade and strop in any reciprocating movement to facilitate the reversal of the holder in the carrier for the next reciprocating movement of the blade.

A further object of the "invention is the provision of a holder mounted for sliding movement with respect to a handle on which the strop is mounted, and a blade holder for cooperation with the carrier, the holder and carrier being particularly formed to permit fixed angular relations of the holder and thereby of the blade carried by the holder with respect to the carrier resultant from contact of the blade with the strop, the formation of the holder and blade providing for convenient reversals of the position of the holder so that ineach movement of the blade over the strop the blade will be held at a proper inclination to the strop for the most eifective sharpening result. V

A further object of the invention is the provision of a blade holder capable of reversal in the carrier and inherently constructed to automatically assume a position to maintain the blade at right angles to the plane of the strop when the carrier has been moved beyond the strop, thereby providing for and facilitating the reversal ofv the holder and blade in the carrier in the respective reciprocating movements of the carrier.

The invention is illustrated in the accom panying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is aview in side elevation f the improved stropping device.

Figure 2 is a plan of the same.

Figure 3 is an enlarged broken side elevation, the holder being shown in position in the carrier in dotted lines.

Figure 4 is an enlarged front the carrier.

Figure 5 is an enlarged plan of the carrier.

Figure 6 is aplan of the'holder, a blade being shown therein in dotted lines.

I Figure 7 is an edge view of the holder, the clamping plate being shown open.

Figure 8 is an end view of the holder.

Figure 9 is a longitudinal section of one of the tubular ends of the holder.

The improved stropping device includes a handle 1 of appropriate length and prefera- 7 bly, though not necessarily, constructed of a thin sheet of metal. The main length of the handle presents spaced, parallel, side edges, that is, is of substantial rectangular shape in plan, and on this portion of the handle is mounted a block 3 removably secured by screws 4, the ends of the block being undercut and the upper surface of the block being provided with a strop 5. The length of the block is less than the length of the rectangular por- 30 tion of the handle, and the width of the block is less than the width of the handle, the undercut ends of the block providing a convenient means for securing the strop in place so that the strop presents an unbroken stropping surface of the full length and width of the block.

A carrier is mounted for reciprocation longitudinally of the handle, including a frame 6 comprising a plate which underlies and bears against the lower surface of the handle, and upstanding end walls which bear against the side edges of the handle and ,eX- tend above the upper plane of the block or strop. The plane of the carrier underlying the handle is preferably cut out on predetermined lines, with the cut-out portion bent downwardly with respect to the plane to provide a fingerpiece 8 by which the carrier may be reciprocated longitudinally of the handle.

elevation of lar section and is The side walls of the carrier are also cut out and portions of such side walls are bent inwardly, providing lips 7 which bear upon the upper surface of the handle, serving with the bottom plate of the carrier to hold the carrier in sliding cooperation with the hanc le. The side edges of the handle in both directions beyond the block 3 are siitted and sortions bent downwardly, as indicated at 2, to serve to limit the movement of the carrier in both directions, as clearly indicated in Figures 1 and 2.

The side walls of the carrier are formed at appropriate points in their height with heartshaped openings for the support of the holder, said openings having nar=ow entrances 10 through the upper edge of the side walls of the carrier and such heart-shaped openings defining lateral recesses 11 and 11 at each side of the entrance opening 10. lhe side edges of each side wall of the carrier formed in alignment with the recesses 11 and 11 with inwardly extending projections 9 and 9 which serve to limit the position of the holder in the respective reciprocating movements of the carrier.

The blade holder is illustrated more particularly in Figures 6 to 9 inclusive, and includes a supporting bar 12 of a length approximating that of the blade to be sharpened and of a width materially less than that of the blade. The support 12 is formed at each end with a rigid, tubular section 13, the length of such sections being materially greater than that of the width of the support, and the plane of the sections bein in the plane of the support.

The support 12 is formed with projections 14 to engage with the conventional openings formed in the blade to be sharpened, and the blade is secured to the support by a clamping strip hinged at one end to the support and formed with openings to cooperate with the projections 14, the free end of the clamping strip being arranged, when in clamping position, adjacent one of the tubular sections 13. This latter tubular section is provided with a slide 17 arranged to encircle and slide on the particular tubular section, the slide being slotted to receive the free end of the clamping strip when the latteris in clamping position. Thus the clamping strip may be secured to hold the blade on the support by appropriate movement of the slide on the tubular section 13, the reverse movement of the slide r leasing the claniping s ip and permitting the latter to be raised for t removal of the bin! Each tubular section 13 is provided with a laterall extendinx trunnion 19 in line with the longitudinal center line of the support 12,

the trunnions terminatin in disk heads for convenience in handling the holder. Each tubular section 13 is provided with a weighted section 16 which slides freely in the tubuheld against separation therefrom by projections 20 indented from the tubular section near the respective ends thereof. The weighted body 16, which is used to normally hold the blade in a vertical position in the carrier or at right angles to the stropping surface, is of a length approximating half the length of the tubular section in which it slides and is' to be so related to the tubular section as to slide freely by gravity from one end of the section to the other without restriction.

With the blade in the holder, the latter is placed in the carrier, passing the pintles 19 through the entrance openings 10 of the heart-shaped formations in the end walls of the carrier. In this position, the weights 16 in the tubular section 13 of the holder serve to hold the blade vertical or at right angles to the strop 5, the lower edge of the blade being, of course, below the surface of the strop. As the carrier and contained blade are moved into contact with the end of the strop or block, the blade is inclined by reason of this contact. The holder remains in the pintles 19 until the tubular sections 13 of the holder ride into contact with the projections 9, during which movement the pintle 19 of the holder is moved into one or the other of the recesses 11 or 118 of the openings in the end walls of the carrier, thus locking the holder and blade at the desired inclination so long as the lower edge of the blade is resting on the strop. The carrier is drawn lengthwise the handle with the blade in this inclined relation to the strop, thereby stropping one of the cutting edges of the blade in an obvious manner. As the movement of the holder continues and the blade and holder ride beyond the opposite end of the strop, the weight 16 in the tubular sections 13 operates to immediately restore the holder to the vertical position, and the opposite movement of the carrier effects an identical movement of the holder to that previously described, except in the reverse direction, thus stropping theopposite surface of the same cutting edge previously affected. The move ment of the carrier is continued until the edge is suiiiciently stropped, whereupon with the carrier in position beyond one end of the strop, the holder is simply lifted from the carrier and reversed so that the opposite side of the blade, if the blade is a two-edged blade, may be stropped in an identical manner.

It is to be particularly noted that the holder is moved to a normal position for reversal of the stropping positions of the blade as it is reciprocated longitudinally of the strop without the intervention of any gears, positioning mechanism or other complicated details of structure, the movement being gained simply through the use of weights which by their arrangement in the holder act in either position of the holder for restoring it to vertical position whenbeyond the strop to permit its reversals incident to the stropping' operation. There are no details of connection between the holder and carrier, as the holder is simply dropped into position in the carrier, and the action of reversing the holder to the relatively opposite inclinations and locking it in such position during cooperation with the strop is entirely automatic and without the intervention of any details of structure tending to such positioning of the holder. In other words, the holder and carried blade is positioned solely by contact of the blade with the strop. I he fixed details of the carrier provide for locking the holder in this position so that the inclination of the blade and strop, having been properly determined for the most eiiective sharpening angle, will be maintained throughout the. stropping operation, while at the same time the holder and blade are free to resume a vertical position upon reversal of the angular relation of the blade and holder in the carrier for the opposite stropping movement.

I claim A stropping device including a strop, a carrier reciprocated with respect to the strep, a blade holder to be loosely positioned in and with respect to the carrier, said holder including tubular sections, and weights sliding in the sections to maintain the holder and blade at right angles with respect to the surfaces of the strop when the blade is free of contact with the strop'.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HEINRICH BI INTEMEYER. 

